I found the address of the hotel in Key West where Bucky and Willie were staying and left a message. Then I dashed off a note to Willie.
I met Bob back at his rent-a-Jeep and snapped his photo in front of the big tree.
“Bob,” I said, “I need to get a message to a friend of mine in Key West. Is there any chance that you could —”
He interrupted me with a laugh. “Hell, after catching those two fish in thirty minutes, son, I’ll swim your message anywhere you want it to go. But I’m meeting a friend in Key West for dinner, and I’d be happy to drop it off.”
Bonefish Bob said good-bye and promised us lots of business.
“Watch out for potholes!” I shouted as he drove away.
Bucky would be happy with the news about future bookings, but more important, I had kept my promise to Cleopatra.
20
Hello from the Netherworld
To: Willie Singer
From: Tully Mars
Lost Boys Fishing Lodge
Dear Willie,
Well, as you can imagine things haven’t changed much since you flew away from Lost Boys. I am sorry I missed you when you came back to get Sammy Raye. I had some unfinished business in Tulum. I got delivered back here on the schooner of my dreams by Captain Cleopatra Highbourne. I must say that it was one of the greatest days of my life and couldn’t have come at a better time. A plane flies away taking one woman out of my life and the same day a ship drops anchor off of an ancient city and another woman drops into my world. I’m no writer, but there might be a song title in there somewhere that you could use.
I’m sure you’ve heard all the good news. There are loads of permit on the flats and word is spreading. There is a guy from Sports Illustrated coming down here next week to fish and Bucky is all excited about the publicity. Looks like the lodge is a success. I am going to wrap up the season here as I had promised Bucky and then hopefully get my ducks in a row because I was offered a job on the schooner Lucretia by the captain herself. You don’t get a chance like that very often and as you know from your own experiences, you got to go get it. Speaking of great vessels, how’s The Flying Pearl doing?
I know you must be up to your elbows in working your way to China, so I will keep this short. I have an odd question, but I figured I would ask it anyway. I know you already saved my life at dinner but you seem to know something about lighthouses and I have kind of gotten interested in them myself after hearing Captain Highbourne’s story. She is searching desperately for a bull’s-eye lens, which is the original light source for a lighthouse in the Bahamas that she owns, on Cayo Loco. It is also called a Fresnel lens. They are very rare, and she is having a hard time finding one to buy.
I know it is an odd request, but you never know. If I hadn’t boarded that shrimp boat in Alabama with my horse in tow and crossed the Gulf, we would have probably never met and I wouldn’t be writing you this letter. I just thought that since you will be flying over the entire Pacific on your way to Hong Kong, if you see or hear about anything like that, could you just drop me a line at Lost Boys? I would gladly trade you a few hours of fly-fishing in the lagoon if you ever get back this way. In the meantime, we will be right here. These fish aren’t going anywhere for a while and neither am I. Fly safe.
Your friend,
Tully Mars
21
Quiet Time
Well, as one might guess, a few days in Key West often turns into a much longer stay than expected. That is what happened to the Five Fishermen of the Apocalypse—the name Sammy Raye gave to his entourage upon their sudden departure for America.
Bucky and Ix-Nay relayed this and other vignettes about the trip when they limped back to Lost Boys a week later. I heard the accounts of Sammy Raye dressing up like Liberace, singing with a salsa band; the incredible story of catching six sailfish on fly in the middle of the Gulf Stream one afternoon; and the sketchy remembrances of an evening in a strip joint with a bevy of Czechoslovakian dancers. None